University of North Carolina Divestment Campaign

Members of the 2009 NCAA basketball champion University of North Carolina got some high-fives from the nation’s hoopster in chief Monday at the White House.

President Barack Obama, sporting a light blue tie, jokingly thanked the team and Coach Roy Williams “for salvaging my bracket” en route to winning its fifth national championship.

Obama recalled playing some ball with the team during a visit to Chapel Hill, N.C., more than a year ago.

“And I’m not sure whose luck rubbed off on who,” he said. “I think there was just a good vibe going on there, because they’re now national champions and I’m now president.”

Basketball coach Roy Williams’ decision to leave The University of Kansas in 2003 ruffled the feathers of die-hard Jayhawk fans. Williams settled nicely at the University of North Carolina, winning two national championships in the past five seasons.

In a role reversal twist, Bernadette Gray-Little was asked whether she expected backlash in 2009 from Tar Heels after deciding to leave her job as UNC’s provost to be the chancellor of KU. “I sincerely hope so,” she joked.

Gray-Little, 64, was peppered with questions about athletics, graduation rates, race, endowments, gender and waving the wheat after the Kansas Board of Regents decided Friday to appoint her to replace chancellor Robert Hemenway, who is stepping down after 14 years.

For a few moments Thursday afternoon there was only silence at the normally bustling center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Hundreds of students bowed their heads, and more than a few wiped tears from their eyes as they gathered in the Pit to remember Eve Carson, the UNC student body president who was murdered one year ago.

“Today is a day to celebrate the special person that Eve was,” UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp said at the start of the remembrance ceremony. “Her enthusiasm, originality and persistence made her an unforgettable person.”

Wilmington, NC (AHN) – Being eco-friendly is easier if there is someplace to shop that doesn’t harm the environment and that was the intent behind a new store that opened on the Wilmington campus of the University of North Carolina.

UNCW recently opened its first store dedicated to selling only environmentally friendly products and alternative transportation last October.

School officials say that the store, ECOteal, has been both a success and a learning experience for the students involved in its creation and in the day-to-day operations of the business.